With Edward Snowden’s revelation of the NSA’s PRISM program, domestic
surveillance has become one of the most talked-about subjects of the
day. But forget the moral implications for a second and think about the
practicalities: Ever wonder how much the government spends to spy on
you? Turns out, it’s a lot.

USA Today published
in in-depth piece on the matter and it brought about more questions
than answers. Let us first get down to brass tax— it costs the United
States Government on average $50,000 per wiretap when everything is said
in done. Take a second to breathe before screaming at the computer.
That is your money they are spending to spy on you.

This piece,
however, will not be dissecting whether or not snooping on citizens is
the moral thing to do (there are far too many articles on that online
already) rather it will outline the actual cost of gaining these
wiretaps from cell companies and will look at the economics surrounding
it.

Here is the breakdown for most of the nation’s leading
carriers: AT&T imposes a $325 “activation fee” per wiretap and $10’s
a day to monitor it, Cricket and U.S. Cellular charge only about $250
per wiretap, and Verizon charges the government $775 for the first month
and $500 each month after that. All this is according to industry
disclosures made last year to Congressman Edward Markey. Email records
(such as with Edward Snowden) are much easier to come by at around $25
per account.